It's a Moral World

By

Alan Wolfe

Updated Dec. 2, 2002 12:01 a.m. ET

Republicans moved from being the minority party in the 1960s to the majority party today by responding to a widespread feeling that something was amiss in American morality. Now that they are in power, they are likely to discover both the persistence of moral questions and their own difficulties in dealing with them.

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The morality of the ascending Republican majority focused on individual conduct. Access to abortion and ease of divorce were viewed as byproducts of an individual's decision to rank personal needs over...